Talk:BHCC Iron Fairy
Article protected (locked) to IP editors Due to repeated loss of Wiki formating to Iron fairy page following some IP edits the page has been semi-protected help:page protection so IP edits are temporarily suspended, till we work out what is causing the problem. - 22:49, February 29, 2012 (UTC) Material moved from category page Material below removed from category page (Material belongs in this article page not a category - needs merging were not already included). Category was deleted as was mistitled. Note: - Categories are a index system were Articles/Pages are placed in the category by adding Category:name of cat here to bottom of article/page or in another category. see British Hoist & Crane Company (BHCC) Ltd '''Compton Berkshire England 1956-1983 '''IRON FAIRY Ltd Heckmondwike Yorkshire England 1993-Present BHCC was the current owner and manufacturer of wheeled mobilecranes and truckcranes starting in 1956 by a team of mechanical engineers and designers formerly at Coles Cranes Ltd. They begun with several models deeply influenced and inspired by Coles road models of the 1970s but used updated hydraulics and developed newer designs at BHCC. The company made several original models and begun with their first simple yet successful model the 1950s Iron Fairy Mobilecrane '''which was little more than a four wheeler wagon with a driverseat and a Y shaped steeljib for lifting any 5 ton loads popular with farmers to the largest model they produced in 1982 the allterrain rugged '''Iron Fairy Zircon 6WD '''20 t their only 6X6 lorrycrane made together in association with Vickers AWD Ltd an English cranecarrier specialist based in South Marston Wiltshire and was Iron Fairy business partner who also supplied cranecarriers to some other similar manufacturers in the UK while Vickers AWD Ltd also buit their own cranecarrier model range as well . Later in mid 1983 BHCC Ltd were merged into Jones Cranes Ltd from Letchworth another English large crane making company since 1938 were crane and mobile crane specialists on wheels and crawlers attempted to assist BHCC Ltd with much more experience and knowledge in technology and would supply BHCC with fresh engineering capacity together in a large technical deal between the 2 firms and as a result most of the Iron Fairy largest models were now being built at Jones Cranes factory too although selected Iron Fairy cranes would remain production at the Compton factory until the early 1980s. Around March of 1983 saw BHCC IRON FAIRY crane production reduced gradually and the biggest IF models the Iron Fairy Amethyst '''and '''Iron Fairy Zircon '''cranetrucks were transfered to the Letchworth facility a huge factorysite where the entire Jones Cranes Ltd large mobile crane range was developed, built, made and tested until around 1994 when the Jones plant and the entire company closed down. The year 1983 saw BHCC IRON FAIRY this time the IF Mobilecrane and IF Tourmaline the oldest models they had in the range were no longer made but as a small company kept their road mobilecrane business in production and concentrated solely on small models the IF Cairgorm 4X4/ 4WS, IF Onyx 4WD, IF Opal, IF Sapphire mobile cranes and the IF Garnet, IF Six yardcranes. All of these units were now using modern diesel and turbodiesel lorry mechanicals from Ford, Leyland and Perkins. But BHCC company was also in serious difficulties by 1991 and struggled hard to stay in business just like every other British cranemaker was too, sadly due to fierce competition that invaded the modern mobile crane and yardcrane market with the arrival of a brandnew generation and completely different with many new makes and models made in Germany, Japan and USA all of them or most of them now using fully All Hydraulics systems and far less mechanical engineering employed together with superior heavier lifting capacities than most European manufacturers, the new crane kin were now using far too well and more advanced technology than any other cranemaker old or new and as a painfull result, the new generation of new cranesmakers were no match to British cranes specialists except for Coles and Jones the oldest and most experienced English crane manufacturing firms since the 1920s who could perhaps both stay in business might have lasted the decade but slowly most UK firms either closed down and vanished OR were simply bought out and saved or taken over completely and now owned by much larger American, Asian and other mobile crane manufacturers of which only Coles, Iron Fairy, NCK and Priestman were the only UK firms that survived the 1990s. For more information please redirect your search in "IRON FAIRY Cranes" where there is a whole lot more history of BHCC Ltd and its present status and enjoy this website myself i love it as im fond of old machinery. Marco Santos Moved by - 14:36, August 31, 2012 (UTC)